Pregame: Mbah a Moute returns to Wolves rotation

Blog Post by: Kent Youngblood

January 10, 2014 - 6:32 PM

Well, here’s a rarity: When the Wolves tip off with Charlotte here at Target Center in less than an hour, Wolves coach Rick Adelman will have every player on his current roster healthy and available to play.

Luc Mbah a Moute (groin) is back after missing three games. Chase Budinger and Ronny Turiaf have both already returned. This has to be a strange situation for Adelman to be in.

And, perhaps, this wave of good health might have fed into the frustrations of the other night, when J.J. Barea and Dante Cunningham sulked at the end of the bench in the fourth quarter after being pulled out of the game earlier than usual.

It’s only going to get harder for Adelman to find minutes for everybody, and somebody’s feelings are bound to be hurt on a nightly basis.

I wrote earlier today with second-day reactions from Kevin Love and Barea about Love’s post-game comments after Wednesday’s fourth-quarter collapse.

Just moments ago Adelman basically refused to comment on it, saying, “We dealt with that yesterday, internally. I don’t think there is any reason to talk about it tonight.’’

Cunningham took pretty much the same line. “Honestly that’s a team issue,” he said. “I don’t really have anything to say about that.”

But, later in both interviews, both Adelman and Cunningham had something interesting to say. When asked if Love’s comments were an example of him emerging as a leader, and whether that was a good thing, Adelman said this: “Well, at this stage and age, you have to figure out how you say it,” the coach said, ‘’you have to figure out how you say it, because it’s going to be out there forever.”

Cunningham, meanwhile, acknowledged that, as competition for minutes gets hotter going forward, frustration is bound to ensue. “You have to be a professional about it,” he said. “Understand coach is doing his best.”

That’s about it for tonight. I’ll get back to you after the game is over.